Management

Presentation

Technology

No? Don’t worry, most people have not. Pecha Kucha is a new global presentation phenomenon which originated in Japan sometime during 2003. It’s a new and wonderfully creative and unconventional way to do Power Point presentations. The rules are very simple: You must use 20 slides, each shown for 20 seconds, as you tell your story in sync with the visuals. That’s 6 minutes and 40 seconds. Slides are set to advance automatically. Thus, good preparation and rehearsal is an absolute must. When you’re done – you’re done. Shut up and sit down.

Pecha Kucha is more that just presentation. It’s a combination of sport and art. You work under heavy time constraints and thus you have absolutely no time to dwell on bullet points or digress from your subject (meaning: you have no time to bore your audience to death). You really must keep clear and right down to the point. This is a great challenge and excellent training of your presentation skills. Remember: If you can’t tell the essence of your story in under 7 minutes, then you probably shouldn’t be presenting anyway. Write a report, pack it in an envelope and send it to your audience. At least you won’t waste anybody’s time.

There are Pecha Kucha nights in almost every city in Western Europe. You might want to give it a try and who knows, maybe I’ll see you there. For further information see http://www.pecha-kucha.org